The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-04-14
Helm from Hercules.


In Grecian story, a wagner whose |
team was unable to draw a heavy load |
from the mud, is represented as kneeling
by the roadside with clasped hands while
he invoked earnestly the aid of Hercules.
Wearied by his importantly the god de
scended from Olympus and rebuked his
Put your shoulder to the
wheel" commanded he, I'VE help only
those who help themselves" There is a
moral in this advice which the people
would do well to heed.
At time when there is universal COM
plant of governmental methOds-Of the
evils entailed by the working of party
machinery-Of the cost of government
and of the superabundance of office hold
ers-at such time the people insist
on creating new offices add
ing to the strength of the machinery
which is already powerful enough to de-
feat the expressed will of the majority;
it is insiste that the Cumbersome weight
of corporations be replaced by the crush
ing strength of commissioners armed
with ''elastic powers" The people have
railroad commissioners who interfere
with our commerce by regulating" cor
pOrate interests; recent events have con-
WINGED many that we should now have
''hotel commission" because hotels,
like railroads, are, in some measure, pub
lie property. Where will it stop? Henry
George wants also ''land commission"
and, we doubt not, in time there will be
a call for a Fashion commission" to per-
form in this country the part now played
by the Prince of Wales in England.
Were the ''reformers' of Jacksonville
logical when they fought fire with fire.
and gained a victory by buying votes as
they had charged their opponents with
doing? Yet we only fight fire with fire
when We oppose commissions to corpora
tons. If the money Of the country gov
erns us to our ruin, we cannot break the
chains it has laid upon us by subjecting
ourselves To other chains; these will only
be an addition to the weight which
already Expresses us.
The people must quit invoking the aid
of n deus er mdcLiad: each voter must
put his own shoulder to the wheel; the
commission may appear in answer to our
prayers, but like Hercules it can afford
no help to a people which kneels in idle
| ness by the roadside. The citizen
is armed with the ballot for his
own protection, and if he ever
lack the strength of mind or courage
necessary to its use, he might as well
| submit his neck to- the yoke of the cor
poration az to that of the commission.
| Kneeling by the roadside with claspei
hands and fearful eyes is an undignified
| position for Columbia to take before the
world. Let her be up and doing-God
helps those who help themselves
| III each of us put his ballot where il
would do the most goOd-if each devoted
| one-half the attention to his public
duties that he now gives to the accumu-
lation of fortune-if each fearlessly de-
cried corruption in particular as we'll as
| in the abstract, there would be no need
for tears and clasped hands. The robe
of citizenship in a republic carries with
it serious duties and responsibilities.
not to be ignored without guilt. If the
| public officer must discharge his public
trust to the best of his ability without
reference to his private feelings or per
sonal preferences. each citizen is pub
lie officer dlso-he is equally bound t.
consider the ballot as a trust confided t.
him, for the faithful discharge of which
he has obligated himself, by the volun
tary assumption of power. to his fellow
countrymen, the past of his native land
and the future of the world. If the citi
zen did his whole duty there would b
less of which to complain in public af
fairs-the whole body of voters would
be commission to consider everything
can be safely confided the arbi
trary, elastic power which can alone
make discretionary commission
produce definite results. And to the
whole people only can such vague
powers be confided without violating the
spirit of our Constitution. Let each put
his shoulder to the wheel and quit invok
ing the aid of commissions. Without
the support of popular opinion they arr
all useless-the Civil Service Commits
sion, the Interstate Commission, the
Railway Commission, the Hotel Com
mission, and the Land Commission al
will be found poweriess to save a people
which persistently neglects the care OF
its highest interests and the performance
of pressing duties. Clasped hands and
fearful eyes never yet lifted a wagon out